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By JOE HUTCHISON FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
Published: | Updated:
A backpack found by officers in the hunt for UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s killer did not contain the murder weapon, according to reports.
Authorities looking for the individual responsible for gunning down Thompson in the early hours of Wednesday morning found the backpack inside Central Park on Friday.
Sources have since told Bloomberg and NBC News that a jacket was found inside alongside Monopoly money.
Police sources couldn’t elaborate on if the jacket found was the same one seen in surveillance images.
The backpack was taken to a forensic laboratory on Friday evening for examination after it was discovered.
The bag was found by cops on their second sweep of the park, and was placed between boulders just south of the park’s carousel.
On Saturday footage obtained by DailyMail.com showed teams of police divers in the water near the Bethseda fountain as part of their search.
Investigators confirmed the underwater search was related to Wednesday’s ‘brazen, targeted attack’, which claimed the life of the 50-year-old father-of-two.
New York’s mayor Eric Adams also said the ‘net is tightening’ on his killer, telling The New York Post that officers now have a name for the suspect.
The bag was found by cops on their second sweep of the park and was placed between boulders just south of the park’s carousel
The 50-year-old father-of-two was gunned down earlier this week, with the footage of his assassination circulating on social media amidst an ongoing manhunt for his killer
He spoke as the search for Thompson’s killer enters its fourth day but said that the authorities will not disclose the suspect’s identity at this stage.
‘We don’t want to release that now,’ he said. ‘If you do, you are basically giving a tip to the person we are seeking and we do not want to give him an upper hand at all.
‘Let him continue to believe he can hide behind the mask. We revealed his face. We’re going to reveal who he is and we’re going to bring him to justice.’
On Friday night the NYPD gave a clearer idea of the killer’s movements after he murdered Thompson.
They say he entered the park after the shooting at 6:48am and then was spotted exiting on 77th Street in the Upper West Side of Manhattan oat 6:56am.
Surveillance footage captured him near 86th Street and Columbus Avenue two minutes after he left the park, while still on his bike.
At 7:04 am he then go into a taxi cab at 86th Street and Amsterdam Avenue and headed north.
By 7:30 am he had made it to the Port Authority bus terminal in the north of the city where they say he boarded a bus and left the city.
On Friday evening new footage emerged in the minutes after the fatal shooting of the suspect flying up 6th avenue on his electric bike.
Despite the lack of online sleuthing, the New York Police Department released images of the suspect in the case – one of which shows him smiling
The footage, obtained by NewsNation, showed a new angle of his escape path and showed him darting across the street and into the early morning darkness of Central Park. On Thursday officials said the individual had arrived into the city in late November on a bus from Atlanta, Georgia, and had been staying inside a hostel on the Upper West Side.
It was inside the hostel that a flirty exchange with a hostel worker gave police officers their first glimpse at the killer, when he was asked to lower his mask.
Prior to the killing he was caught on surveillance cameras inside a Starbucks near the Hilton Hotel where he shoot Thompson.
He is said to have bough two nutrition bars inside the chain alongside a bottle of water that was found at the scene.
The image of the backpack that was found shows what appears to be one of the bars in the side pocket.
Officers believe they are closing the net on Thompson’s killer as the manhunt for him continued on Friday. A cop is seen here inside Central Park on Friday evening
The Chief of Detectives with the NYPD Joseph Kenny has said that they believe the assassin is either a disgruntled ex-employee or an angry client.
A motive is yet to be released, with police found bullet casings at the scene inscribed with the words ‘deny’, ‘depose’ and ‘delay’.
The messages bear similarity to Jay Feinman’s 2010 book ‘Delay, Deny, Defend’, which details ‘why insurance companies don’t pay claims and what you can do about it.’
On Friday night the FBI announced they had also joined in the investigation for the killer, offering a $50,000 for any information that leads to a conviction.
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